2012 China Experience: Global Perspective

Visiting the Beijing Jinsong Vocational School and Dinner
Meeting with Intel’s Julia Zhu

On Thursday Global Learning Fellows got an up-close look at some
aspects of Chinese education. We started the afternoon with a tour of Beijing
Jinsong Vocational High School, one of the National Key Schools, and a model
for vocational education in China. After
touring the state-of-the-art facilities, we had a cultural exchange with a
selection of the school’s faculty and staff. Following the school visit and
discussion, we were honored with a presentation from Julia Zhu of Intel, the
world leader in computing innovation, to learn about the skills students need
to succeed as learners, workers, and citizens in today’s global economy. Learning
Fellows Gay Beck, kindergarten teacher from Highland, Utah; Donna Youdelman,
Special Education teacher from Tucson, Arizona; and Tom Bindl, elementary
school teacher from Madison, WI, shared their reflections on the day’s
experiences with us.

One resounding theme
we heard from the group was the hope to bring back the cultural experience to
their own classrooms and the possibility of expanding students’ horizons
through cultural exchange, as well as the idea that teaching practices at home,
and abroad, can be improved through collaboration and learning on a global
level. Jinsong has a strong international aspect that allows for students to
connect with other cultures and prepare for the working world through student
exchange programs and by incorporating international standards and ideas into
the curriculum.

“…the world is a big
place”

Gay Beck recognized that even kindergarten students can
benefit from the kind of cultural exchange that makes the Jinsong school so effective.
“I feel like it’s essential for my students to realize that beyond their little
oasis of coming to school every day, the world is a lot bigger than that.” Gay
explains that through her experiences in China and the pictures and stories she
will share, “I’m hoping to bring back to [my students] the idea that the
world’s a big place, and that they’re going to end up a working person in this
place. I hope they develop the global awareness and cultural awareness of the
world around them. I feel like kindergarten is a great place to start with
that.”

Preparing the global
workforce

The need to develop global competency at the earliest levels
echoes Julia Zhu’s emphasis on preparing students for collaboration and
cooperation in an increasingly interconnected world. Intel’s Julia Zhu provided
the teachers with a perspective on what businesses are looking for and what
skills students need to develop in order to be successful in today’s global
economy. While the goal of education is not just employability, it is something
that must be considered, as our students will need to take part in the working
world at some point. Key aspects for success are cooperation and collaboration
with people from all different backgrounds and cultures.

Breaking down
barriers

“Global competence to
me is: how do you break down barriers?” Tom Bindl said when discussing the
importance of cooperation in global competency. “We have barriers between people, but once you
understand someone or a different culture, you’re less likely to have a problem
working with that person. To me, the purpose of the school visit is to have a
look at what’s going on in schools outside of the united states to gain more
awareness, and to look and see where we have some comparisons and similarities
between the schools in the US and internationally. This gives us an
understanding of each other, so we’re more comfortable with things we didn’t
originally know. Once we have more of an understanding, we have more cultural
acceptance.”

Teamwork and collaboration are key 21st century
skills, but they need to reach beyond just one culture, as students entering
the working world will need to be able to work with people from all different
backgrounds. Tom recognized that his students are yearning for this kind of
experience. “When I tell them about my trips, it gets their attention. It’s
rather mindboggling in a sense because they’re looking off to the side, not
paying attention, and you bring it up and they’ll turn right to you and listen
up like you’re talking about family. Instructionally, to a third grader, in
math, you can bring this in as extensions in story problems, so you can bring
in the vocabulary, the city name, the country name – you start bringing in that
vocabulary and there’s an awareness. They go,
‘Oh, China? They have how many people, 1.3 billion, is that right? There
are how many people in Beijing?’ And you can start making these into problems.
There’s a sort of simplified awareness, and if you don’t provide that basic
awareness you don’t have a stepping-stone to greater global competency.”

Successful global
citizens

Donna Youdelman works in a district where very few students are
able to gain first hand access to different cultures, but she is excited to be
able to incorporate this experience into her special ed curriculum across all
subjects. “They will get a chance to learn and see different cultures and
experiences in all levels: writing, language, music, and even cooking,
enriching them while they are staying at home, which makes them more prepared
for the world at large. Sometimes we have to travel outside our towns, and if
we’re travelling, we need to be aware of different cultures, be aware of what’s
proper, and how to behave in this global world. The international aspect of the
professional development program not only makes school more interesting for
students, but also helps teachers prepare them to be successful global
citizens.“

Connecting schools to
businesses

She also remarked on the similarity between Jinsong school
and her own state’s developing vocational program. “We’ve recently started
vocational education program in Arizona, so students can go into vocational
training, and they graduate from high school with a skill, with a certificate,
and with the ability to gain employment. It’s great because not all students
have the capability to go to college, and so it’s great because we need to
address the needs of all the learners.”

Tom agreed, “I was impressed by the zero-distance – the
proximity and connection that the school has with business. I didn’t expect the
type of building materials, cleanliness, the type of machinery that they have:
the technological, computers, equipment for the hair stylists, for the cooks,
just fantastic. And how well it’s kept up – more schools are industrial models,
but here you can tell how it’s advanced here.”

Experiences like the NEA Foundation-Pearson Foundation
Global Learning Experience help facilitate the kind of connections that
teachers wouldn’t be able to bring to their students otherwise. Even if
students do not have the opportunity to travel on their own, their teachers are
able to bring these experiences back to their classrooms, to their schools, and
to their districts to shape curriculum and provide the kind of cultural
expansion essential to student success.

1 Comment

RaeAnn Rumery

July 6, 2012 @ 6:59 PM

This vocational school is quite a different perspective than the one last year's Global Learning Fellows visited. It is great to see the business connection and monetary support of vocational schools.
That is a perspective that should be embraced throughout society- investing in the learners of today and educating them in environments that mimic where they will work in the future.
Thanks NEA and Pearson for hating these fantastic learning experience for teachers to bring back to their schools and communities.